Julina Lambson Smith

Julina Lambson Smith (June 18, 1849 – January 10, 1936) was a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). From 1910 to 1921 she was a member of the General Presidency of the Relief Society. The second wife of Joseph F. Smith and the mother of Joseph Fielding Smith, she is the only woman in the history of the LDS Church to have been the wife of a President of the Church and the mother of another church president. She worked as a midwife in the Mormon community and delivered over 1,000 babies. Biography Julina Lambson was born to Alfred Boaz Lambson and Melissa Jane Bigler in Salt Lake City. Her parents were Mormon pioneers who arrived in Utah in 1847. Her family's home was the first house in Salt Lake City to be plastered. As a young girl Julina would often stay with her aunt Bathsheba W. Smith and it was in her home that Julina was first introduced to the idea of plural marriage. Ten years after arriving in Salt Lake Julina's family was forced to Nephi, Utah because of the Utah War. Her family and many other saints passed through great trials after being displaced from their homes. Marriage and family In 1866, Julina married Joseph F. Smith in the Endowment House. It was Joseph F. Smith's second marriage; Julina was his first plural wife. His first wife Levira, was unable to have children and was often ill, so Julina would do all of the household chores and other tasks. Joseph and Levira were divorced in 1867. On August 14 of that same year Julina had her first child, Mercy Josephine. In the next fifteen years Joseph married four more women. Julina was close friends with the two of her sister wives closer to her in age, Sarah Ellen and Julina's sister Edna. Joseph F. Smith would go on to be an apostle in the LDS Church and was the church's president from 1901 until his death in 1918. Joseph F. Smith and Julina Smith had 11 children, one of which was Joseph Fielding Smith, longtime historian and apostle of the church and president from 1970 to 1972. Another son was David Smith, who became a member of the church's Presiding Bishopric. Her son E. Wesley Smith, who was born in Hawaii, twice served as mission president in Hawaii. The couple also adopted two children.